Bird Songs
by Bar Sira
Summary: From Beethoven to Veggie-Tales to Lee Ann Womack, it's all grist for the vignette mill. A response to the I-Pod – or, in my case, Musicmatch – Challenge.


**Disclaimer:** The movie is Brad Bird's; the songs are a bunch of other people's; the stories, for what they're worth, are mine.

**Author's Note:** This is not, perhaps, the strictest entrant the I-Pod Challenge ever had. Each vignette was at least partially thought out beforehand, and, on occasion, I tweaked small details (phrases that didn't make any sense, or weren't what I'd been trying to think of, or turned out to be canonically inaccurate) after the song had ended. However, the essence of the Challenge has, I believe, been met; in each case, I switched on the song, wrote the story while it was playing, and stopped writing when it ended. (As a result, this is a somewhat rawer pile of writing than I'm accustomed to producing - hence my decision to post it on my backup account, rather than under the Qoheleth name.)

Also, I should perhaps mention that #2 is a direct reference to my story "Speed" (ID 3723076, in case you're interested). I apologize for this bit of blatant self-promotion, but I couldn't think of any other way to make the song fit into the fandom.

Now: on with the stories!

* * *

**1. **_("Aspenglow", performed by John Denver.)_

Dash hated skiing. They strapped these huge things on your feet so you could barely walk, let alone run, and then shoved you down a mountain and let gravity have its way with you. Who needed that?

But when they gathered in the lodge afterwards, with warm drinks in their hands and laughter in the air – then Dash forgave his mother for wanting to have Christmas in Aspen.

* * *

**2. **_("A Little Past Little Rock", performed by Lee Ann Womack.)_

Billy drove moodily through the desert. He wasn't sure where he was going; he just knew that he had to get out of Metroville. After Violet's death, every street corner had made him think of her; he'd have gone crazy if he'd stayed.

What he hadn't expected, though, was that the desert was doing the same thing to him. That shadow beneath a cactus – was that her hair? That faint shimmering in the air – one of her force fields?

He shook his head, and sighed. "Well, Vi," he said, "I may be a little past Civic City, but I guess I'm still a long way from over you."

* * *

**3. **_(__"Windsong", performed by John Denver.)_

Dash stared moodily out the window as the autumn leaves blew around the lawn. How come the wind got to be so free? How come it could blow wherever it wanted to – thunder on mountains, roar to the sea, even knock down houses if it felt like it – when he had to inch along with the other humans?

He sighed, and took a deep breath fragrant with freshly-mown hay. Maybe if he inhaled enough of it, it would tell him its secret. It was worth a try, anyway.

* * *

**4. **_(__"The Christmas Wish", performed by Kermit the Frog [Jim Henson].)_

_Knock-knock._

"Sounds like our guest is here," said Helen with a smile. "Go get the door, will you, Dash?"

"Sure thing, Mom," said Dash, and zoomed out to the living room to open the door. "Hey, Mirage. Come on in and grab a seat; dinner's almost ready."

Mirage shook her head in wonder as she stepped across the threshold. "I don't even know what I'm doing here," she said. "I was raised in a Moslem family; I never believed in… well, in _that_." She gestured to the crèche on the piano.

Bob smiled. "You believe in love," he said. "That'll do for now. –Turkey?"

* * *

**5. **_(__"If You're Anxious For to Shine", performed by Simon Butteriss.)_

He should have consulted Mode about the costume, of course. Then he might have been able to avoid the fatal cape.

But he'd never wanted to contact real superhero fans – people, that is, who genuinely admired superheroes as such, and felt privileged to serve them. The truth was, he'd never liked the whole super concept itself; it was just a convenient way to get people to look at him, to say, "What a brilliant young man that young man must be!"

And his last thought, as the engine devoured him, was, _Well, no-one's ever going to say that again now._

* * *

**6.** _("The Morning After", performed by Maureen McGovern.)_

When Helen woke up in the hotel room the next morning, she was amazed to find that she felt like a superheroine again. It was as though the long night of the Act had vanished with the sunrise, leaving no traces behind; it was time to start giving themselves to the world again.

She rolled over, and smiled sleepily at her husband. "Well, Mr. Incredible," she said, "what adventure do you suppose is in store for us today?"

* * *

**7.** _("Tom Dooley", performed by the Kingston Trio.)_

Violet stared through the bars at him: the first criminal she'd ever brought down solo. He stared back, pure hatred in his eyes.

"You could look a little sorry, you know," she said. "They say it makes it easier."

He snorted. "Sorry?" he said. "I'm sorry, all right – sorry I let you catch me. I could have been in Knoxville by this time tomorrow, if it hadn't been for you."

Violet sighed. Some people you just couldn't help.

* * *

**8.** _("The Water Buffalo Song", performed by Larry the Cucumber [Mike Nawrocki].)_

"'Everyone's super in his own way'?" said Meghann. "Honestly, Incredible."

Bob sighed. "C'mon, Psyc," he said. "Of course it was silly, but it made him feel better."

"Well, I just hope you're prepared to deal with the consequences," said Meghann.

In the end, of course, they both did.

* * *

**9.** _(The first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra.)_

"Aargh!" Violet shouted, and threw her violin across the room (making sure, of course, that it landed safely on the sofa; it had cost her parents $500, after all). "That's it! I quit! I don't care if I never see another piece of sheet music again!"

She turned to storm out of the room, but found her path blocked by a familiar, short, blond figure. "I heard you from upstairs," said Dash. "Thought I'd come down to see what the problem was."

"Give you three guesses," said Violet through her teeth.

"The Beethoven thing again?"

"Mm-hmm."

Dash nodded. "Yeah, I figured you'd give up eventually," he said. "After all, you're not really an allegro kind of person. Not like some of us, anyway." He smirked. "Too bad Beethoven never wrote a piece for you. Or maybe he did. What's the Italian for 'timid little fraidy-cat who vanishes when Tony Rydinger turns his head in her direction'?"

"Listen, scuttle-butt," said Violet, brandishing the bow that she was still holding, "if you don't want me to stick this up your…"

But Dash, having gotten his jibe in, was already gone. Violet groaned; of all the little brothers in the world, she had to get stuck with this one.

_But was he wrong?_ said a nasty voice in her head. _Or – let's say – are you going to give him the satisfaction of thinking he's right?_

When the voice put it like that, there wasn't much she could do. She groaned, went over to the sofa, picked up the violin, and went back to the music stand for another half-hour of self-torture.

_Hey, _she thought, _it's what heroes do, right?_

* * *

**10.** _("High-Flying, Adored", performed by Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone.)_

STRATOGALE DIES IN AIRPLANE CRASH!

Edna put down the newspaper with a sigh. Poor Cynthia. She remembered when she had come in for her first fitting: a little street urchin from Grand Rapids, overwhelmed yet delighted to have suddenly become America's favorite superheroine.

She wondered, in the back of her mind, whether the sudden shock of fame had been too much for her. They said she had taken up some questionable habits lately; had that been why she had flown so near to the jet turbine? Or could it even have been deliberate; was she so tired that…?

"Nonsense," she said aloud. "It was the cape, that was all. I should have known…"


End file.
